𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇 || ᵇ.ᵏᵃᵗˢᵘᵏⁱ

XXIII

🗡️🗡️🗡️

Aeri was on night patrol with Jinyoung a few days later. It was relatively quiet in the area they were patrolling, only the odd citizen walking home from work. It got a lot more interesting when she received a text from Midoriya. His location.

Hosu City.

What the hell was Midoriya doing in Hosu City at this time of night?

She showed her brother the text and without any arguments, he teleported them there. They landed at the entrance to an alleyway where the clashing of metal and the grunts of her classmates were heard. Todoroki came bounding around the corner moments later, obviously having been nearby at the time of Midoriya's text.

The three of them entered the alleyway, coming face to face with the hero killer himself. Midoriya was rushing around with a kind of green lightning surrounding him. Todoroki ran over to Iida to check on him and Jinyoung went to check on the paralysed hero lying on the floor.

"Aeri, you know what to do. You have my permission." Jinyoung told her calmly, Aeri nodded and drew her katanas. It seemed this would be one hell of a sword fight.

She slipped into the shadows without the hero killer seeming to notice her, he was too focused on trying to slice Midoriya. She crept behind him silently and sent a powerful kick to his right shoulder. He stumbled and whipped his head to the side. Aeri was already gone again but it gave Deku enough time to land a shot on the villain's cheekbone. Unfortunately, the villain also managed to cut Deku's arm and Aeri absolutely did not expect him to bring the sword up to his lips and lick the blood clean. Midoriya grunted and fell to the floor.

"Ooohh, I understand now," Aeri said from the shadows and the villain's head whipped around trying to spot her. She teleported in front of him and made her body physical. "So like...do you consider yourself a vampire? or a cannibal? You have to consume your victim's blood in order to activate your quirk don't you?"

The villain scowled and swung his blade at her. Aeri parried with ease and the sound of blades crashing echoed through the alley. "Oh dear, and your swordsmanship is terrible. How'd you manage to take anyone down with skills like that?"

"Don't let him cut you, Aeri!" Midoriya grunted, lying helpless on the ground nearby.

Aeri didn't take her eyes off the villain as she replied. "When have you ever seen me let someone do anything to me?" Midoriya didn't reply and Aeri lunged forward, clipping the villain's leg with one blade and blocking his strike with the other.

"Jinyoung, how's the situation back there?" Aeri asked as she sent a kick straight at the hero killer's face. She got an idea at that point and teleported backwards to where Jinyoung and Todoroki were tending to the wounded. She grabbed Deku by the back of his costume and took him with her.

"They're fine, paralysed but fine," Jinyoung answered. Aeri dropped the now nauseous Deku at her brother's feet and then pulled Todoroki up from his kneeling position.

"I have a plan. Need your help." Aeri whispered. She kept her eyes on the hero killer who had just recovered from her kick. She shot a shuriken at him and he yelled out in pain, clutching the wound on his waist.

"What's the plan?" Todoroki nodded in agreement, rolling his shoulders back in preparation.

"I want to know if the whole blood-tasting paralysis thing applies to him too. If it does, he'll be a whole lot easier to take down and restrain. I need you to create a thin layer of ice on the floor to make it harder for him to move around and then block off the other end of the alley so he can't escape. I'll do the rest."